Rocky Top owns the Twisted Fork I think.

1/7/2014 10:26:33 AM

Quote :

" Empire Eats Catering (The Pit, Sitti, Gravy, Raleigh Times) Catering Works Belle's Catering Unforgettable Food Affairs Donovan's Dish Catering by Design Green Planet Catering Rocky Top Hospitality Posh Nosh Catering Clyde Cooper's "

Oh, you got The Stockroom at 240 or whatever? My husband's catering company has done events there before. So we should be on their list. Here's our website if you want to look over our menus.

http://www.spicecubedcatering.com

/plug
Never heard of Belle's Catering, Unforgettable Food Affairs, Donovan's Dish, Green Planet Catering or Posh Nosh Catering. Also its not hard to get on a venue's approved catering list. Most times it just takes the caterer calling up to the venue and saying "Hey, I want to be on your approved catering list". Or saying "hey, I have a client that is booked at your venue but wants to use us as their caterer" Sometimes they ask to see a menu or ask for a list of references.

[Edited on January 7, 2014 at 10:29 AM. Reason : f]

[Edited on January 7, 2014 at 10:31 AM. Reason : f]

1/7/2014 10:27:14 AM

From what I understand, the venue likes to work with certain caterers that are familiar with their facility. I suppose I could look into others and see if they'd be approved, though I don't want to do too much work researching a favorite just to find out we can't use them.

1/7/2014 10:28:51 AM

Another catering question:

When you are looking for caterers will they generally let you taste menu items freely, or are they waiting for you to make a deposit before they let you taste? I don't want to buy anything I haven't tasted & get myself in too deep before realizing their food sucks.

[Edited on January 8, 2014 at 12:24 PM. Reason : ]

1/8/2014 12:23:38 PM

Depends. We looked at three and two had a tasting at some point before the wedding. The third had a spread of various items for us to taste at their initial meeting.

We went with the one that fed us because they won us with food.

1/11/2014 9:00:50 AM

I only met with one caterer, but they gave us some of several items they had going out that day. If we wanted to do a tasting of specific items to make sure we liked them, they would do that for $15 a person after the initial meeting.

1/11/2014 9:54:37 AM

Wait, I can get free food during this whole wedding planning thing?

1/11/2014 11:50:59 AM

wait till you get to the cake tasting

1/11/2014 11:55:04 AM

^^looks like it isn't all free!

One of the places on my list is having an "open house" where we can taste some of their foods in a large group of people. Other than that I've only scheduled "consultations". I don't know their policies for tastings yet, but won't be so interested if their quotes are outrageous. As for cake, we've already tasted this chick's cakes so I'm not worried about that.

1/11/2014 11:58:03 AM

^^ Cake tasting? I'm so there.

1/11/2014 12:04:18 PM

That is something we missed out on but my mom has had food by our caterer many times in the past and she had cakes from the baker before. Tastings would have been fun but our food rocked and the cake was great. Plus mom got discounts because she had used them in the past.

1/11/2014 2:48:44 PM

Finally got our wedding video done and it was well worth it. We (I keep saying we...this was the wife's decision) watched a bunch of videos from potential videographers and were pretty unimpressed with most of them. Right at the point she was deciding that we weren't going to do a video, her friend posted her wedding video done by a guy out of Charlotte and she really liked it. So if anyone is interested, we highly recommend Timm Young Films. Video and password if you're interested:

http://timmyoungfilms.com/paige_john

pw: tyfwedding

1/23/2014 7:50:49 AM

Anyone done a "small ceremony, bigger reception" wedding? How'd that go over with those who weren't invited to the wedding?

1/23/2014 12:07:03 PM

I attended one. I think they might have had 30-50 in the actual ceremony and maybe 75-100 at the reception?? I was part of the reception crowd and wasn't offended at all because I was honored to get an invite. I do imagine it would be tough to separate the two crowds unless you're going to do strictly family/wedding party...then everyone else (which is how I would do it).

I mean...I wish I could have witnessed the ceremony, but I was just happy to be part of their day.

1/23/2014 12:09:44 PM

We did that. No guests had a problem with it. My mother in law was the only one with issues because she kept wanting to invite "just one more person" because she didnt want to offend anyone. We finally told her that guests of the bridal party and family only were invite to the ceremony. And family stopped with true Aunts and Uncles. I have no true aunts and uncles but ny husband has 3 sets. Anything past that was reception only. You have to be firm, too, because she begged me to let one particular friend come whose son had passed away and he was my husband's good friend growing up. I said yes at the time and then suddenly she needed to invite 3 more families because she couldn't invite the one without inviting all the others. My husband told her that none of the could come then. The guests arent as offended as the moms can be. Luckily the intimate ceremony was my mom's idea and was what both my step sisters did so I had no issues from her.

1/23/2014 12:18:48 PM

Are artisanal invites dinosauric? Do people use FB or a personal website? Is that tacky?

1/23/2014 12:35:12 PM

Quote :

"Anyone done a "small ceremony, bigger reception" wedding? How'd that go over with those who weren't invited to the wedding?"

We may be doing something like this, well kind of. We're having a destination wedding and a few folks have suggested that we should also do a party/reception in Raleigh after we get back. I'm on the fence, I like the idea but then I think it's also counter-intuitive to our actual budget.

1/23/2014 12:38:52 PM

You can do a cheap reception.

1/23/2014 12:40:04 PM

yeah, that's what I would want.

1/23/2014 12:40:59 PM

My sister's husband's brother did something similar, MinkaGrl01. They had to go out of state to gst married legally so they had a reception that weekend.

1/23/2014 12:48:26 PM

I'm going to make a personal website with all the travel details etc so everyone has one place to go for info and if we do a Raleigh reception we can include info about that there for those who cant come but would still like to celebrate.

Also, one of the locations we're considering gives you the option of having the ceremony on webcam for those who can't come so we could have it on our site too if we go with that.

1/23/2014 1:06:26 PM

We used the knot for our website. I wanted one made just for us but our friend that volunteered to do it disappeared. The knot was easy to use and very helpfu.

1/23/2014 1:16:49 PM

Quote :

"Are artisanal invites dinosauric? Do people use FB or a personal website? Is that tacky?"

Personally I find online-only invites a little lazy, and I would think using facebook crosses the line into tacky. Maybe I'm old-fashioned but I still think paper invites are the way to go. They don't have to be formal at all if that's not your style--but I like sending out something your guests can open, look at, etc.

Using a web site for the details is the way to go though. We used ourwedding.com - quite easy to set up and gave us space for all the info we wanted to post.

1/23/2014 2:34:24 PM

We sent paper invites but went with online/phone RSVPs for a variety of reasons. They were on our website, which we did with weddingwire. We were thinking "good, they will all have to go to our website and will be less likely to ask us questions that are answered simply on there."

Well, all our family members for the most part RSVPd OK, but then people kept asking our parents, his grandmother and other random people about hotels and whatnot. We said on the save-the-date and the RSVP slip that our website would have that kind of info, but for whatever reason there were several people who just didn't really get that. Maybe our family members are just slow, but be prepared that there will be people who ask you about travel info and things like that even though you have made it really easy on them by putting it on your site.

1/23/2014 2:41:22 PM

I'm pretty sure the knot uses our wedding.com for the websites.

1/23/2014 3:17:20 PM

Quote :

"Well, all our family members for the most part RSVPd OK, but then people kept asking our parents, his grandmother and other random people about hotels and whatnot. We said on the save-the-date and the RSVP slip that our website would have that kind of info, but for whatever reason there were several people who just didn't really get that. Maybe our family members are just slow, but be prepared that there will be people who ask you about travel info and things like that even though you have made it really easy on them by putting it on your site. "

A bunch of people on my wife's side of the family don't even have computers (and a few on my side don't seem to know how to use the ones they do have), so we definitely experienced this too. Just one of those fun things to deal with.

1/23/2014 4:11:50 PM

ahhhh the fun of planning! We're going the easy route and doing it onboard a cruise. We've picked our cruise line, Celebrity; our ship, Reflection; and our sailing date, November 22nd (Thanksgiving week 2014)

Here's the location for the ceremony (if we do it at sea):


Right now we're trying to figure out numbers of people who will be coming. We're heavily leaning towards doing the ceremony during the first at sea day, performed by the captain, but the option of having the ceremony/reception on embarkation day for non-sailing guests is also on the table (the ceremony would be on the deck). That option though means we have to get an officiant but I love the idea of having the captain. So far it seems like we'll be having quite a few friends/family sailing with us.

Planning has been easy, it's a little hectic in the beginning but once everything is in place all we have to do is sit back and wait. oh and pick out a dress

1/29/2014 4:06:58 PM

Anybody have a good recommendation for a good band for our reception?

1/30/2014 8:36:05 AM

I really wanted to get Old Habits but they were ~#3500, and I wasn't ready to drop that much on a band. Definitely would have if I could though.


Anyone in the Raleigh area have ideas for a rehearsal dinner? I have a few ideas rolling around in my head (Sitti, Tribeca, Caffe Luna), but wondering what y'all thought.

2/2/2014 5:18:50 PM

I've been to a small reception at Cafe Luna. Excellent choice.

The way the place is set up they can close off rooms from the rest of the patrons and give you a nice private feel.

2/3/2014 8:52:21 AM

Went to a rehearsal dinner at Sitti and it was fantastic. You get the downstairs room, and they decorated it really nice with lanterns.

2/3/2014 9:14:01 AM

We considered Sitti and Battistella's, but ultimately we decided to host at our house because so many people were coming. What's the size of your rehearsal dinner guest list?

2/3/2014 12:13:39 PM

We had ours at Bella Monica. It was GREAT!

2/3/2014 12:20:24 PM

^I love them so much. I bet that was awesome

2/3/2014 12:30:40 PM

We did ours at 518 West and it was pretty awesome.

2/3/2014 2:30:49 PM

I'd honestly prefer to have the rehearsal be casual and at home, but we just cant fit that many people here. It will probably be 25-30 depending on some family members who live far who may or may not make it, and the health of some others. My half sister lives nearby, but I think that's still an overwhelming number for her home. None of my friends that have decent sized homes in the area are a part of the ceremony.

2/3/2014 5:40:07 PM

I apologize if this has been answered somewhere in this lengthy thread, but does anyone have recommendations for bridesmaid gown alterations? The dress is from David's Bridal but I'm trying to avoid alterations there. The dress only needs to be hemmed.

2/12/2014 7:04:12 PM

http://www.uniquetailor.com/

they altered my wedding dress (not that it was super fancy or anything): but they do great work, and they're pretty inexpensive

2/12/2014 9:24:11 PM

Does anybody have experience reselling unused hotel rooms from a wedding block?

2/13/2014 9:38:24 AM

lee's tailor at Crabtree for a simple hemming.

2/13/2014 7:55:26 PM

Thanks for the tailor suggestions! I looked on the website you listed and saw they had some Groupon and LivingSocial deals out. The Groupon has expired but the LS deal is still current. Today only if you use the code: 2014presday you can save 20%. I bought the $25 option for $50 worth of alterations and saved $5 with the promo code. Additionally, ebates.com is offering 6% cash back at LivingSocial. Just thought I'd share if anyone else was looking for alterations.

https://www.livingsocial.com/deals/1000969-30-or-50-to-spend-on-alterations?ref=share-post_purchase-copy_box-web-deals&rui=5062713&rpi=151172433

2/17/2014 1:53:07 PM

i just got an invitation to the wedding of my co-worker who i don't really consider myself to be very close with. she's very nice, we just don't really have anything in common. we took classes together in college several years back and we randomly ended up working together this past year. do i have to invite her and her future husband to our wedding as well? i don't have a problem with her, but i'm really trying to cut back the invite list to save money. thoughts?



[Edited on February 22, 2014 at 11:45 AM. Reason : ]

2/22/2014 11:44:59 AM

My opinion: I wouldnt invite her if she wasn't on your list to begin with. Stick with your list like it's a household budget. When it comes to her inviting you, I'd say the only thing you have to do is just go if you want, enjoy it and bring her/them a gift-- but I think your obligation stops there, you aren't then beholden to invite her to yours.


I said yes to the dress today! As soon as the stylist put it on me and I saw myself in it I knew it was for me! The style was gorgeous on me, it's not was I was originally thinking I wanted but it shows off my figure and I just glowed. So I feel really happy that it's one thing I dont have to worry about. whew!

2/22/2014 5:50:47 PM

^Can you PM me a picture? I'd really like to see it.

2/22/2014 5:53:47 PM

I spy a tww wedding in Cary Magazine

2/23/2014 12:29:30 PM

Cake tasting day.... Best day ever

2/25/2014 10:00:50 PM

Anyone know any decent tailors in the Durham/Chapel Hill area? I can't contend with the stupidity of people at David's Bridal right now. I'm making my own reception dress, but unfortunately I have little experience with the lace that is on my ceremony dress.

3/7/2014 5:46:43 PM

Also, we're doing a courthouse wedding and a backyard BBQ reception, because I love my new house and most folks haven't seen it yet.

My mom got shut down about anything wedding-related except the dress. I let her have that.

3/7/2014 5:53:15 PM

Quote :

"Cake tasting day.... Best day ever"

Indeed.

5/13/2014 1:35:13 PM

Hey y'all, just a reminder that I shoot weddings and am very reasonable. Just sayin'

http://www.ronnynause.com

5/13/2014 4:15:05 PM